Wednesday

Hey, folks, yes, a lot going, a ton going on, Hot Takes everywhere you look, but as strongly as I feel (and I do) and as interested as I am (and I am – I’m a

Political Animal from genus to species), I just can’t get myself up for engaging in all that in this space. I’ve explained why often, but it all comes down to the limits of mental and emotional space. Once I get going, I’d be all in and on the Internets all day, fighting those battles, and all I have to do to fight the temptation is to do a quick scroll-through of Facebook and Twitter and see the same names posting all freaking day and into the night. No thanks. Don’t want to go there, don’t want to be that. I mean, who knows. But it’s a good check on that temptation when it strikes.

So, to digest instead.

Note: I started this post this morning with the best of intentions. What intervened? I am honestly not sure….

Reading: Just finished Dirt by Bill Buford, which I liked a lot. If you are interested in food, history, the history of food, travel, life in Europe and the life of an ex-pat, especially with a family, you’ll probably like this, as well.

Buford, writer, editor, the author of an earlier foodie memoir called Heat

(which I have not read), decided in 2007 to take his family – wine expert wife Jessica and their then-toddler twin sons – to Lyon.

Many of us think of Paris as the center of French food culture, but a strong, if not stronger argument can be made to give that crown to Lyon and its great tradition that began with the meres – the women who established the core of Lyonnaise cuisine in the early 20th century and expanded through the decades to include the beginnings of nouvelle cuisine decades later.

Buford is not a professional chef, but a dedicated, even obsessed amateur who decides to explore a cuisine from the inside – to be trained with the best, if possible, and to work with the best, if possible. If they’ll let him.

So Dirt is that story. It’s the story of what Buford learned about Lyonaisse cooking and how – it’s about both the cost and the fruit of a deep involvement in the professional French kitchen. It’s about a family’s adaptation to this new place, and how this new place begins to feel like home. It’s about all the characters, past and present, who make Lyonnaise cuisine what it is.

It’s also about creativity. For French cooking is rooted in knowing, first of all, every iota and atom of the tradition of ingredient and technique. Then you can think of something new.

And most of all, it’s about the connection between cuisine and place – hence the title – and while it might inspire you (as it did me), it also might grieve you as you take out your highly-processed lunchmeat to lay out on bread from an industrial bakery and top it with cheese that shines like plastic. Where does this come from? What does it say about…anything?

If anything, Dirt reanimated my travel bug, not just in general, but very specifically. No, I don’t care about going to Paris or London or Rome (okay maybe Rome) again, but I yearn – deeply – for that experience of the deeply-lived local, a small or mid-sized town like Uzes or Pavia, rich in history, confident, somewhat unwelcoming to the outsider, but in the cool of an evening, lingering over a meal, a place that permits me, even in my strangeness, to be surrounded by ancient stones piled high by hands long gone, but hands of men and women who probably sat in this same place, lingering over meals and a welcome cup of wine, as well, gazing up at the same stars and wondering what could possibly come next.

Uzès, France. 2012.

Next up: Veritas: A Harvard Professor, A Con Man, and the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife. It’s very well reviewed, and I’m looking forward to it, but I can’t help but ask, even ahead of time, what fools thought Karen King was on the right track at all? I mean…I sure didn’t at the time. It was obviously nonsense from the beginning, and what I’m mainly interested to see is whether King’s involvement is all innocent – in which case…can I teach at Harvard, please? …..or in the least opportunistic. We’ll see.

Watching:

Fargo! Season 4!

I’ve written about Fargo several times – here, for example.

This season seems to be a bit different. We’ll see. I mean, Noah Hawley is at the helm, and he does have his themes: mainly – the role of the serendipitous coincidence in human affairs, and the reality of good and evil and the fact that they don’t get along. Neither seems to be much in evidence as yet – yes, there is a weird incident that sets all subsequent destruction in motion, but what I’m not picking up is a strong moral center – which is a key element of all previous seasons, not to mention the Coen movie that’s the inspiration for it all. Yes, there’s a good, interesting character who’s got our attention from the beginning – Ehthel, the 16-year old biracial daughter of a white father and black mother – but, well, she’s just a teenage girl. Who is for sure seeing interesting things and asking questions about them, but she’s not a cop or other adult figure with some authority to really make things happen, move things along and take down the bad guys.

We’ll see.

I did enjoy it, though. It’s received mixed reviews, but no matter. A lot of those same folks say that season 3 was their least favorite, while it might just be my most favorite. I love everything about the setting: Kansas City, where I’ve spent a lot of time, both in my childhood (my dad taught at KU in Lawrence for five years) and recently, as my son’s college is nearby. I know the series hasn’t been filmed there – it’s filmed in Chicago – but the long scene setting shots are of course of Kansas City, the downtown of which maintains a distinct mid-century feel.

Update! Update! It’s 11:47 pm! Can I finish before midnight??? People keep calling me, responsibilities keep calling…..

Starts sprinting…

I like it. I don’t know where it’s going, but I like it. I like the questions Hawley is asking about America – about what makes an American, about how America is a weird mix of high ideals and outright criminality. I like the forthrightness about race and ethnicity. I like the straightforward oddness.

I’m in. I doubt I’ll love it, as I loved seasons 1 & 3 (liked season 2, but didn’t love it), but you never know…

Listening: Same. You know the drill.

Right now though? Jazz playlist.

Cooking: Varia. Best scones I’ve ever done this morning – using this recipe, but subbing a mix of strawberry-flavored Greek yogurt and milk for the buttermilk. Sticking the mix in the freezer at every pause in the process.

This Chicken Tortilla soup, which was fantastic. Believe what he says about the cilantro. Yes, you dump a lot in it, but it doesn’t taste like cilantro – just rich. BTW, I use a Rotel-like tomato thing for the tomato in the recipe.

Tonight – a chicken breast filet pounded and panko-breaded, alongside a variation on this pasta dish from a favorite site. Pretty basic, actually, but good. Vegetables (spinach) and starch in one dish.

Also this week was a steak – get a prime or premium cut, cook it this way, and you will never, ever be tempted to go out for steak again, as if you still were.

(Bone-in ribeye is my choice cut. Fresh Market never does me wrong. Wow.)

11:57

MADE IT.